By Olesya Astakhova and Yousef Saba
RAS AL KHAIMAH, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) – Igor Sechin, the head of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft, said on Thursday that the OPEC+ group’s decisions to reduce oil output in 2016 and 2020 helped the U.S. shale industry and made it a leading global energy exporter.
Sechin, speaking at a forum in the United Arab Emirates, said Russia and its partners have made the main contributions to the global energy market stabilisation in the past 10 years.
A long-standing ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sechin has previously expressed scepticism about Russia’s cooperation with the OPEC, saying that the United States benefited most from the deal, struck in 2016.
Sechin told the UAE forum that Russia and its partners have helped to stabilise global energy markets.
“OPEC+ decisions to stabilise the oil market in 2016 and 2020 significantly supported the US shale industry,” Sechin said.
Some analysts have said that the OPEC+ efforts to balance global oil market have been offset by sluggish fuel demand in China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer, as well as by increased production from non-OPEC countries, such as the U.S.
OPEC+, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, pumps around half the world’s oil.
Later on Thursday, the group is due to hold an online meeting to decide on production policy in 2025.
OPEC+ sources told Reuters that the group is likely to extend its latest round of oil production cuts by at least three months from January.
U.S. oil production is set to grow just 2.3% this year, as shale producers remain focused on shareholder returns and limit new spending on production, according to U.S. government data.
Last year, oil exports from the United States grew 13.5%. They have grown every year except in 2021 when COVID-19 crushed global oil demand, according to the data.
oil production led global oil production for a sixth straight year, with a record-breaking average production of 12.9 million barrels per day, the U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed.